Category: Blog

When it comes to successful cascading of information, all paths lead to leaders – how they role-model the actions and behaviours they expect from their teams, how they communicate down the line and how much interest they take in what’s going on at the coal-face. And that old chestnut ‘how to improve middle management communications’ keeps coming back time and time again.

It won’t come as a surprise to learn that people trust their line managers more than anyone else in the organisation – so, as we have said many times before, that layer of management is very powerful. But like dialogue, trust works both ways. Managers need to trust their teams too.

Think about it like a parent/child. If a parent constantly tells the child what to do, keeps the constraints tight and doesn’t allow the child to show he/she can be trusted to do the right thing, to explore the options and prove him/herself, the resulting attitude or behaviour will range from mere compliance to resentment and even rebellion.

In organisations, middle management behaviours so often reflect this ‘telling’ ethos – ‘this is what we need to do, now go away and do it’. Of course, training can be excellent for learning and development, but in some cases can itself also veer towards ‘telling’. Successful development and coaching of middle managers however is all about encouraging them to invite their teams to participate, explore, collaborate with ideas for better ways of working, share responsibility. It’s about involving them in the strategic planning (within a framework), inviting them to take the initiative, listening to their opinions, asking them for their input. This requires a different type of conversation – and it’s not a ‘telling’ kind of conversation, it’s an ‘inviting’ or ‘asking’ kind. Indeed, coaching and development needs to focus on showing managers HOW to go about having this kind of conversation. The ensuing sense of ownership and pride will be palpable, especially if it can be shared across the organisation. This approach will make a big difference to engagement.

Much of our work focuses on getting leaders to understand and explore how they will role-model the actions and behaviours that are required to change those of their teams.

But change in behaviour needs to apply to other practices and disciplines within an organisation – it doesn’t only start with leadership behaviours. If an organisation wants its people to change the way they think and do things, it needs to lead by example in other areas. It needs, for example, to start by adopting a different approach to how it talks and interacts with its people from the start. Is it reasonable to expect them to change if all they see and exerience are the same old communications methods and practices as before?

Storytelling is all about having a ‘different kind of discussion’. By its very nature, it sends a clear signal of ‘doing things differently’. It has a tremendous power to engage, inform, inspire and learn – to change people’s behaviours. Don’t tell the Strategy, tell a Story. Continue to learn from each other, grow and reinforce those messages through sharing ideas and stories of success and achievement that connect to that strategy and vision. And please, do it creatively – not just by barraging your people with the same old e-mails, PowerPoint presentations and briefings as before!

How many of you get frustrated at having to go through national (or international) call centres to get through to the local branch of your bank? That is, if they allow you to speak to the branch in the first place!

I read an amusing story the other day about an elderly lady trying to phone the local branch of her bank. She was put through to a call centre in Asia, where the salesman tried his very best to persuade her to buy one of a whole suite of products, which she politely declined. Eventually he gave up, and asked her how he could help. “I was just wondering,” she said, “if I’d left my gloves on your counter.”

…and to follow on from my last blog, here’s something that reinforces the issue!

Many organisations we work with see Trust as a critical factor in gaining competitive advantage. But to create a trusted organisation – if that is how you want to be perceived by your customers and external stakeholders – you have to begin with your employees.

I recently attended an internal comms conference where the question was asked, ‘Who Do Think Your Employees Trust Most’? The vast majority of delegates, given the choice of Chief Executive, comms team or line manager opted for the line manager.

Never has there been such a need to engage the organisation as a whole, and in particular line managers who are so influential to their teams. Organisations need to look at different and more engaging ways to reach through to this layer of the organisation. If you can’t get this strata of employees to trust the decisions and strategy that is being set by the executive team, how can you possibly expect those at the coal face to trust them?? And if employees don’t trust the senior team (or worse, their line manager), they remain cynical and their levels of engagement and performance will drop dramatically, impacting on customers’ perception of the organisation.

Trust is built over time. Invest in engaging your people at every level, and the rewards will follow.

Get the organisation talking and you’ll find innovation. Innovation is what drives organisations forward. And an organisation of engaged employees is far more likely to be one that achieves innovation. What is an engaged employee? Read this…

A client told us about their experience when they decided to send a promotional mailing to all their customers all over the world.

Being a contemporary kind of company, they had decided to use a trendy design and all was encased in a smart black envelope with the logo in the corner.

Within a few days the client was flooded with calls from Asia. Customers were asking what was the matter? They dared not open a black envelope, as this symbolised incredible bad luck and death in several Asian cultures.

It just goes to show – great design in communication can meet its match with culture!

We love this poem by Elspeth Murray, which echoes our frustration at the complexity, jargon, irrelevance and clutter that litters communication within organisations today. Elspeth wrote the poem for the launch of the cancer information reference group SCAN (South East Scotland Cancer Network) in January 2006, which has been trying to improve the quality and speed of services for people with cancer.

This Is Bad Enough

This is bad enough
So please…

Don’t give me
gobbledegook.

Don’t give me
pages and dense pages
and
“this leaflet aims to explain…”

Don’t give me
really dodgy photocopying
and
“DO NOT REMOVE
FOR REFERENCE ONLY.”

Don’t give me
“drafted in collaboration with
a multidisciplinary stakeholder
partnership consultation
short-life project working group.”
I mean is this about
you guys
or me?

This is hard enough
So please:

Don’t leave me
oddly none the wiser or
listening till my eyes are
glazing over.

Don’t leave me
wondering what on earth that was about,
feeling like it’s rude to ask
or consenting to goodness knows what.

Don’t leave me
lost in another language
adrift in bad translation.

Don’t leave me
chucking it in the bin
Don’t leave me
leaving in the state I’m in.

Don’t leave me
feeling even more clueless
than I did before any of this
happened.

This is tough enough
So please:

Make it relevant,
understandable –
or at least
reasonably
readable.

Why not put in
pictures
or sketches,
or something to
guide me through?

I mean how hard can it be
for the people
who are steeped in this stuff
to keep it up-to-date?

And you know what I’d appreciate?
A little time to take it in
a little time to show them at home
a little time to ask “What’s that?”
a little time to talk on the phone.

So give us
the clarity, right from the start
the contacts, there at the end.

Give us the info
you know we need to know.
Show us the facts,
some figures
And don’t forget our feelings.

Because this is bad
and hard
and tough enough
so please speak
like a human
make it better
not worse.

© Elspeth Murray
www.elspethmurray.com

(If you would like to use this poem, please contact Elspeth at elspeth@elspethmurray.com)

Another one for the cabinet…..we are delighted to receive yet another accolade for our work with EDS, which has just won a Silver Quill at the IABC’s Southern Region Conference in the US.